Community Corner

CL&P Building Wall at Stamford Substation to Prevent Sandy Flooding

Vice President Bill Quinlan says a station serving thousands of customers is at risk of being flooded by storm surge from the hurricane.

 

Two Connecticut Light & Power sub stations, serving a total of 19,000 customers, are at risk of being flooded by storm surge from Hurricane Sandy, a top CL&P official said Monday.

“The flooding is unprecedented,” Senior Vice President Bill Quinlan told reporters during a press conference on Monday. “We’ve never seen flood heights the level like the ones being forecasted.”

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Quinlan said that, to combat this potential flood risk, CL&P is constructing a six-foot concrete dyke around the company’s sub station in Stamford as a way to block the waters from getting in to the utility company’s facility.

Forecasters are predicting the storm surge could reach 10 feet or more, with some saying it could get as high as 14 feet, resulting in several coastal areas in the state flooding.

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Officials are expecting the worst surge during high tide around midnight.

The sub station serves approximately 11,000 customers in the Stamford area. The company has already placed sandbags at this location as well, he said.

Quinlan said there is also another substation in Branford that serves 8,000 customers, but because the structure is much larger than the Stamford station the utility company has no plans to create such a similar enclosed wall.

“Branford (substation) is large and we simply can’t get the equipment there,” he said.

He said the company is looking in to bringing a portable sub station in to that area, should Branford be damaged in the storm.

CL&P also continues to onboard line workers, tree workers and other personnel as the storm makes way into the area, Quinlan said. The company’s approach at this time is to have workers on hand for emergencies but full restoration efforts won’t commence until after the storm fully moves through.

Over 7,600 CL&P customers, roughly 1 percent, are without power as of 9:30 a.m.


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